Monday, January 27, 2014

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Game Day is coming up fast and the Coller kids are picking out their appetizers and snacks! Grandma Brenda is here visiting so we want to make it an extra special time. Tonight we sampled TGI Friday's potato skins and chicken wings to see if we might want to add them to our big game lineup---food lineup, that is!

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Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Welcome to the Homemaking Party!I've been a busy bee this week, preparing for Jamie's mom to come for a two-week visit! She comes tomorrow. Jamie and the kids are all so excited!Here's what I've been up to this week on the blog...

I shared our super yummy recipe for Mexican Chocolate Cake. We had this after church Sunday night and it was awesome!

I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper amplification for Collective Bias and its advertiser. All opinions are honest and are my own.

When I was in grade school, the "big reward" for a job well done was always a class pizza party. My homeschooled kids have never experienced that, so we make up our own little family parties around fun events. Saturday, we broke out our stash of DiGiorno pizzas and had a game time pizza party!

Monday, January 13, 2014

I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper amplification for Collective Bias and its advertiser. All opinions are honest and are my own.

My husband, Jamie, has been on medication for over 10 years now and I still have a hard time remembering to call in his medication refills! Almost every month, he ends up saying something like, "hey did you know I've only got one pill left?" Then it's a mad scramble to the phone, and later to the pharmacy, to make sure he can take it on time. I'm ready for some automated refill reminders!

While exploring Walgreens.com today, I discovered several great refill options and services to help me better manage his prescription. Jamie has suffered from migraine headaches since he was a young boy. There are a few things that make them come on, like trigger foods, lack of sleep, and stress, but they're mainly due to his blood pressure. In our early married years, he dealt with at least one debilitating migraine every week. They would be so bad that he couldn't work, drive, or even be in a room with bright lights. Finally, he was diagnosed with the blood pressure issue and given medication to keep it under control. Since then, he doesn't get them as often, and we've learned how to better manage them when he does. The prescription is essential though, so we've got to make sure he doesn't run out.

One thing I noticed immediately when viewing the website was the option for free shipping on prescriptions! One of the reasons I have a hard time refilling his prescription far enough ahead of time is that I usually only do errands once a week. So, if I've forgotten to refill the prescription (and write myself a note to pick it up) then I usually don't think about it at all until the following week. With the Walgreens free shipping option, I don't have to worry about paying extra for the convenience of not needing to go pick it up!

After a little more perusing, I found out that I could set up automatic prescription refills. It occurred to me that, if I could set this up, along with the shipping option, I wouldn't need to worry about his prescriptions again until they needed to be re-prescribed by his doctor!

The website is so easy to navigate and, if I ever do have a question, Walgreens.com offers secure online pharmacy chat with a professional pharmacist. I'm really excited about the way Walgreens makes managing prescriptions so simple for me!

It's really important to me that Jamie doesn't have to worry about not having the medicine he needs to keep him feeling well. He works so hard for us during the week and I want to make sure he's able to enjoy his family time and free time as much as possible.

Sunday, January 12, 2014

I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper amplification for Collective Bias and its advertiser. All opinions are honest and are my own.

Although Daddy and his kids can get pretty silly about their Football food, there's one thing they're serious about: it's important to have good snacks for the Big Game. In fact, they actually have some pretty unique food traditions for game day. For instance, it's the only time of year we eat marshmallow circus peanuts!

Since game day is coming up, we threw a little sampling party ahead of time to get a good idea about what kinds of snacks we'll want to serve. Daddy and the kids always root for the underdog---that is, unless their favorite Minnesota team is playing! We went with our favorite team's colors for decorations and a couple of our favorite brands for snacks.

When I was shopping at Walmart earlier in the week, I picked up two varieties of Tyson Any'tizers: Chicken Fries and Popcorn Chicken. Next time you're in Walmart, make sure to check for the special messaging on one of the freezer endcaps. Selected Tyson Any'tizers will be on rollback for $5.98 for a limited time.

I also wanted to try out the lineup of Kraft dipping sauces I'd been looking at lately. I was hoping for a bbq version, as that's what Jamie loves best with chicken.

Luckily, I found one hiding behind these little dressing bottles! Kraft BBQ Ranch---perfect! When you go to pick up yours, be sure to check for a tag on the bottleneck and a special playbook. These will be available for a limited time on participating products.

Tyson Any'tizers are easy and tasty for a quick game day snack. Our family loves their many chicken snack varieties. It's getting to the point where I'm having to come up with some pretty smooth strategies to make sure I can score a couple bites when Tyson's in the house. Sometimes I ignore strategy all together and just fight the kids for some.

I'm a pretty strict, no-nonsense Mom, but when Daddy's home, all bets are off. He's been known to encourage the kids to play with their food...

...and he's usually right there at the center of it all.

I love Tyson brand chicken snacks because the meat inside is so tender and fresh tasting. There's a big difference in biting into a Tyson Popcorn Chicken piece verses a fast food nugget. See---it really is chicken! No penalties for mystery meat here!

After the obnoxious chicken and sauce football game outside, the boys were still in the mood for some play time. Michael and Elisha were sure that big brothers would prevail, but Liam definitely made the interception!

Once I finally tackled the challenge of getting the chicken bags back from these football fans, it was time to cook up our dinner. I like using this large stoneware bar pan to cook all the chicken and fries at once. I can load it up and bake it all at 400º for about 30 minutes and it comes out great!

This shot right here is the ultimate testimony to quality chicken snacks. Kynthia has meatin her mouth and her plate is almost empty. Notice the abundance of food on the other kids' plates? Yeah, Kynthia's the Queen of the False Start! No penalties for her either though---she's way too cute!

Although these two players' uniforms would suggest they're on opposing teams, they definitely agreed that the BBQ Ranch was an excellent match for the chicken snacks.

Jamie thought so too as he scored a tasty touchdown with this chunk of popcorn chicken.

With 11 of us in the family, it can sometimes take some serious strategizing to score a bite to eat around here. But when it comes right down to it, family, food, and fun always equal a total win!

Speaking of wins, I think we've found a perfect new game day snack tradition! Hmm...I wonder how marshmallow circus peanuts taste with BBQ Ranch sauce?